Pesticides in Dab Pens Cause Death in Teens

Dab Pens, Weed Vapes and Dabber’s Pen: all names for the popular tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) pens on the rise among consumers—including teenagers—across the nation who are now using these devices as a more discreet way of getting high compared to smoking cannabis. Along with the rise in teen dabbing, there has also been a recent increase in teenage hospitalizations due to unknowingly dabbing from pesticide or chemical-filled dab pens, causing health officials to worry.

“I am aware of one particularly relevant survey though, done recently, with high school students in which 41 percent reported only smoking, another 10 percent reported smoking and dabbing and 9.8 percent reported smoking and ingesting. Only about 10 percent used a combination of modes that did not include smoking. Dabbing appears to be more popular among those who are seeking to experiment with new forms of delivery,” health scientist for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Dr. Ruben Baler told the Rampage.

Dab pens give users the ability to get high without having to smoke the marijuana herb. They contain cartridges supposed to be filled with marijuana wax, better known as Butane Hash Oil (BHO), honey oil, budder or shatter — but the danger stems from the fact that there is no way of knowing what the cartridge has actually been filled with.

Despite not knowing what is actually in the cartridge, dab pens are viewed as a quick and easy way of getting high, an anonymous RHS senior boy said.

“I use my dab pen every day. It gives me a relaxing feeling and helps me get through the day and not have to worry about things on my mind. It is also so easy and does not smell at all. It is like a portable high you can keep in your pocket and use whenever you would like,” he said.

Despite the supposed pleasant feelings from the drug, dabbing is also known to cause serious health risks such as seizures, high blood pressure, twitches and jerks of extremities, paranoia, confusion, agitation, mild fever, tachycardia (up to 110 beats per minute), hypertension (up to 170/90 mm Hg) and photophobia, Baler said.

“Dabs that are homemade or obtained from an unreliable source may be prone to containing residual solvent, like Butane, and also pesticides or other contaminants. One published analysis of 57 samples of cannabis concentrates for contaminants found that over 80 percent of the samples were contaminated by solvents or pesticides to some degree,” Baler said.

Why somebody would fill these cartridges with poison is unknown. However, the suspected reason is for the seller to meet the required weight of the THC cartridge for the consumers’ demand, as well as to distribute and make a profit. For example, the THC in a cartridge may have been short .1 of a gram so the seller fills in the missing tenth of a gram with poison or pesticides as filler which is harmful to the human body. The danger is that the consumer is unaware of exactly what is in the cartridge.

There are many different companies who legally make and distribute unlaced cartridges. However, it is suspected that average consumers and users are the people guilty of filling these cartridges with poison as stated in articles published by Rolling Stone as well as International High Life. Online stores can be used to purchase these cartridges, fill them and then resell them from the same box as major companies like “Exotic Carts,” “Honeycomb Carts,” “Brass Knuckles” or “Mario Carts.”

A vape cartridge customer filed a consumer class action suit in the Los Angeles Superior Court May 2018 against the cannabis brand “Brass Knuckles” for apparent pesticides in dab cartridges. The company is the industry leader in extracted cannabis oil products.

The industry as a whole is taking action to inform their consumers of how they can tell whether their cartridge is real or fake. With the rise of health issues due to these products, the industry wants their consumers to have an enjoyable experience using their products, according to an article published online March 1 by Leafly.

If users are not educated on the possible consequences of dab pens, consumers may suffer damaging and/or permanent effects to their bodies.

People in the area have suffered serious trauma from the effects of these pesticides in the cartridges, senior Esteban Bonilla said.

“A very good friend of mine is currently brain dead because she has been smoking dab pen cartridges with pesticides in it. This pretty much ruined her life and is really sad to me and all of my friends,” Bonilla said. “My friends were very scared about dab cartridges and decided to stop using these to not end up brain dead or in a hospital.”

3 Comments

3 Responses to “Pesticides in Dab Pens Cause Death in Teens”

Scottie on
October 2nd, 2019 12:54 pm

How can a dab pen kill you?

Morgan Price on
February 28th, 2020 5:44 pm

Last year on this day, I hit a fake a dab pen at school, and it caused me to almost die. I couldn’t move, speak, or think straight at all. Story: It started off with me just thinking it was a regular dab pen, and wanting to get a high. I hit my friends dab pen (who didn’t know it was fake at the time), and I thought all was well, until about 15 minutes later. I started “tripping” to put it in simple terms, and seeing things move in slow motion, and started experiencing an outer body experience. My friend noticed something was wrong, and asked if I was okay, and I responded with “no”, and their response back to me was, “Same. I think I’m hallucinating”. This is when I knew this was all wrong, and I knew regular weed doesn’t make you feel like this. I decided to put my head down, and try to sleep it off for the rest of the class period. Not a good idea. I don’t remember a lot about what happened next, other than sheer panic going through me because I couldn’t move, speak, and it felt like I wasn’t breathing right. I kept moving my eyes around, but the way my head was down on the desk, all I could see was my arm covering my face. After awhile I started feeling sick, maybe from me panicking, but I could feel myself start to gag, but my body couldn’t move, and my brain was not processing things like how I normally would. Everything felt like it was shutting down. I eventually threw up all over myself, and couldn’t stop throwing up. I couldn’t move still. Eventually I was throwing up so bad, I was throwing up blood. I still don’t know how to this day no one around my desk didn’t see the throw up, or smell it, or hear it. I started losing consciousness after this, because I was choking on vomit still left in my throat, and my brain was trying to shut down, from the chemicals in the dab pen. After awhile, my friends around me were calling my name, and noticed I wasn’t breathing right, and my eyes were wide open (I’m assuming the stayed opened because I was in and out of consciousness). They were scared, but didn’t know what to do, or what was happening. They kept shaking me, and then moved my head up and little bit, and it just slammed right back down (I gained more consciousness then because of the impact) because I couldn’t move. That’s when my teacher noticed them still shaking me, and calling my name, and I heard her say “Morgan are you okay”. I lost consciousness again, and then woke back up when they pushed my head off the desk (I don’t know why the did that), and stream of vomit and foam came out of my mouth. Still unable to move, I was dangling off my desk, the teacher got the EMS class to come in, and try to help. They picked me up, and laid me on side, and hooked and oxygen mask up to my face. I don’t remember anything after this. I had seizures on and off for 3 hours, and was in a “drug coma” for 8 hours. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong, only that I had hit a dab pen. They eventually came to the conclusion, after my drug test came back negative, that it was a fake one, and got the cartilage tested (which later on the report said it had chemicals used in cleaning products, and spice in it, not a drop of real THC in it). I’m fine now, but it’s still a traumatic experience, being able to hear everything, and not being able to move or speak, or ask for help. I was helpless, and was slowly dying, until someone eventually found me.

Sorry for this being a long comment, just wanted to let you know how bad of an impact fake dab pens had on me.

Geoffrey Harris on
April 17th, 2020 9:22 pm

Hello. My 19-year-old son died in Merced on March 20th, 2020 15 days after celebrating his birthday with his girlfriend. He was found lying face-down dead with bluish finighers and with a wax vape pen by him about 8:15 PM. The emt who was called noted that he had no pulse. He had had had a heart attack and undergone cardiac arrest. How often does that happen? Incidentally he had been using not just wax but nicotene, adderol, percocet, alcohol, and elavil (for migraines) over the last year. Early in highschool he had also used coke, molly, xanax, and lean (a liquid containing codeine).